Similarly, a Brand Management Office (BMO) ensures the standardization of your brand’s message, usage, and delivery in a world where brand value means everything and brand risk can be catastrophic. Whether you choose to call it your Marketing/Corporate Communications Office, Brand Steering Committee, or Branding Council – the naming is up to you, but the importance of such an organizational structure cannot be understated.

Organizations with strong brands command higher profit margins and sustainable competitive advantage. The quantification of brand value can have important implications to a company’s financials.

So what does a BMO do?

The BMO champions a coherent and consistent brand identity, both inside and outside the organization. The objective is to retain and expand on brand equity for the purposes of increasing the bottom line.

• account for:
  • the assets, liabilities, and activities that have an impact on brand
  • the resources at your disposal
• prepare the organization by:
  • facilitating communications between all stakeholders, so that everyone is “on the same page”
  • handling risk management, addressing potential social media crisis scenarios
  • communicating updates to social policies within the company
• engage customers on several levels:
  • product/service: assisting in the buying decision making process
  • support: addressing questions, concerns
  • company purpose: participating in something meaningful, beyond profits
• measure:
  • social metrics against ROI objectives
  • improvements to social ROI by developing and extending methodologies
• learn:
  • by capturing “best practices” and “lessons learned” for continuous improvement
  • by removing unintended obstacles to brand performance

Who owns the BMO?

A brand is expressed by every product, service, employee and customer, but Marketing Communications (Marcom) guides the conversation. They are the prime candidates to act as facilitators within a diverse group of stakeholders.

In the Marketing Mix (price, place, product, and promotion), Marcom is the “promotion“. And if promotion is the “voice” of the brand, it always helps if it’s clear and articulate. A lot goes into that voice – input from Sales, Service, Legal, Finance, and Marketing. And increasingly, IT is playing a complementary role in gesticulation. Far from just “hand waving“, IT provides the tools and expertise to convey the message far and wide through analytics, social software and other emerging technologies.

How is a BMO structured?

Selecting the right BMO for the right organization depends on corporate culture.

“The key to using culture to improve performance lies in matching culture or attributes to organizational goals.”^[1] In the Four Organizational Culture Types, corporate culture is categorized as:

Mapping the left axis of corporate culture to the degree of BMO control provides the following 3×3 matrix of possibilities:

The bottom axis shows that there are essentially three types of BMOs:

Advisory: This type of BMO exercises the least amount of control across the organization, providing support when and where needed. This can take the form of guidelines, policies, case studies, and consulting.

Compliance:  The compliance type of BMO provides the same services as the advisory BMO, except that checkpoints are put in place to ensure that the guidelines are followed. Education may play a more critical role, with certification as a requirement.

Directive: This BMO goes beyond advice and compliance by actually managing or performing the required work.

There are situations where a Directive approach may be necessary, such as negative publicity gone viral.

Determining criteria for success

Success will look different for every organization, with brand value being the primary metric. Reaching success will take time, talent, and tenacity, as the factors that influence brand are rapidly changing. But for those who choose to take a systematic approach to managing their brand’s value, the rewards should be great.

Looking forward to your opinions on the following in the comments:

• Should brands always be managed by marketing?
• Do you think that corporate culture plays a role in how social media is used both internally/externally? If so, how?
• What BMO activities do you think would yield the highest impact or value?

1. ^[1] Four Organizational Culture Types by Bruce M. Tharp ↩

When it comes to developing social media strategies, there are two types of companies – those with a significant brand and those without. You’ll often hear case studies on the successful use of social media in business – Dell, Domino’s, Ford, Zappos, Starbucks… And yet these companies had solid brands to begin with. So for small businesses, a bit of a brand refresh might be in order.

Establish your brand identity

If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend ordering Marty Neumeier’s book ZAG. It will certainly help you identify what sets you apart. If you don’t clarify your uniqueness, you’re making it hard for prospective buyers to choose between you and every other clone business. There are no shortage of problems to solve in the world and I truly believe there’s a business out there for everyone.

Speaking of problems.. Before even addressing your product or solution, you have to answer what problem do  you solve. I’m meeting many people who are  following their passions, only to discover that potential customers simply don’t share in them. Passion’s great, but passion doesn’t always solve a problem. There’s a name for a business that consistently makes no money (other than bankrupt) – a hobby. Hobbies are cool, but they don’t pay the bills…

How you express your brand is important. People are very sensitive to authenticity and if they detect it’s lacking, then trust is lost. In addition to the voice you use in writing, consider video, as this is a far more effective means of making a connection.

Homework: As mentioned earlier, read ZAG, it’s a quick and enjoyable read. Also consider The Brand Gap.

Recommendations: When you get this right, you may very well discover that what you thought you were selling, isn’t what you’re actually selling at all. For example, you thought you were selling coffee, but what you’re actually selling is the ability for people to launch a new refreshing day. It’s not about you, it’s about them. And don’t be afraid to keep refining this until it clicks.

Everything going forward in this post will need to be in alignment with your brand identity.

Social Media Presence

Before stepping out onto the social media stage, you need to be aware that your brand has several personifications – you, your employees, and your company name. For many people, these are one and the same – they only blog, tweet, and buzz under their company name . And that’s fine, but for larger organizations, keeping these separate might be wise, as your company’s identity may be managed by a team. Also keep in mind that many people aren’t interested in interacting with a company brand and only follow or connect with real people.

I belong to well over 50 social media sites, but I only participate daily on 5. I need to know how all these sites work, but there are only so many hours in a day. Every social network has it’s own niche and personality. Find one that fits with you and your brand, then commit – and most importantly, enjoy. If it feels like a chore, you’re doing something terribly wrong – don’t leave the best part of yourself at the door.

Even if you plan on participating on one site, you’ll still need to register your brand on all the major platforms to secure it. A service like NameChk should make your life easier, but don’t feel obligated to sign up at every site!

There’s no need to play the numbers game. Statements like I have 50,000+ LinkedIn connections or I have 1,000,000 Twitter followers are meaningless if those connections aren’t real relationships. 100 dedicated, true Facebook Fans are always more powerful than 10,000 superficial ones. Do not equate reach and relationships with connections and email databases. Magnify your relationship capital, and then,  multiply your relationships.

Homework: Read The Cluetrain Manifesto – markets are conversations. Go to MLPF and converse with some real people.

Recommendations: To start, join one and only one social media site and participate daily. Graduate to two or more once you get the hang of it. People like responsiveness, so spreading yourself thin won’t serve your purpose. Also make sure you’re conveying your brand consistently as to avoid confusion. Choose your connections carefully. Don’t connect to spammers, but be perfectly willing to connect with strangers. Remember, strangers are just friends we haven’t met yet. Numbers count for nothing when no one cares about your message.

Participation

This is the “secret” of viral marketing and word of mouth – people share ideas that are worth sharing – those that are interesting, innovative, funny, provocative, or exceptional in one way or another. Everything else is mostly noise. It’s often subjective and always in the eye of the beholder – a brand is only real when shared. Advertising is not dead, it’s just an art form, the bar of which has been raised significantly.

The execution of a social media strategy takes place in the intersection of attraction and contribution - you need to give to get.  This forms the dynamic where people relate to each other, share information, and delight in surprising insights (ideas worth sharing). Active listening is a really important skill to have in this medium and those who master it will do very well.

Homework: Read every book ever published by Seth Godin. Read my blog on Precessional Business Models.

Recommendations: Consider your audience carefully, when coming up with ideas. A provocation-based selling approach can work well in this environment if you’re actually raising valid and original concerns for your market. If not, then you risk being quickly categorized as yet another noise-maker. And an even better approach – don’t try selling at all. Just listen, contribute, share, and participate – after getting to know and trust you, people will come to you with their problems and concerns. And it’s at that point you’ll realize that you’ve planted the brand seed.

Don’t forget to measure

Metrics can be categorized in three broad groups: measuring things that are going on out in the marketplace, measuring things going on internally, and measuring the interactions in between. There are an increasing number of social search/social monitoring tools available to help you assess what people are talking about and the problems they share. There are also a number of tools for measuring SEO/keyword demand, what issues people are actively engaged in and what’s bringing them to your website.

Evaluate your progress towards your business goals and then optimize your brand, presence, and participation. A strategy always has to be linked with business goals, such as increasing revenues, in order to know if it’s effective. But remember, it’s less about your sales pipeline and more about lining up with your customer’s buying cycle.

Homework: All measurement requires a measuring tool: setup Google Alerts for your company name; read my blog on Social CRM; use Google Insights to measure demand.

Recommendations: The four steps I’ve described – branding, presence, participation, measurement – are an ongoing cycle. Measurement is essential to being able to continuously improve on your social media efforts.

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Did you find this blog an idea worth sharing? What challenges are you experiencing with social media strategy?

If you link Twitter to Google Buzz and Buzz your Tweets, you’ll get UnFollowed.

Your tweets add much less value inside Buzz. The logic is simple:

10. Tweets work best in the context of conversation, which is lost in Buzz

9. Disembodied short tweets do not compare with a full Buzz discourse

8. Your tweet stream is taking up A LOT of screen space in Buzz

7. Your tweet stream is displacing other interesting and detailed posts

6. Can’t make use of hash tags in Buzz as effectively as you can in Twitter

5. Can’t make use of Twitter @ references in Buzz

4. People unfamiliar with Twitter may mistake your tweets for spam or cryptic gibberish

3. A single tweet is overshadowed in Buzz

2.Far less comments in Buzz to tweets

And finally, the top reason why Buzzed Tweets get UnFollowed:

1. If I wanted to read your tweets, I’d use Twitter

I hope this has convinced you, or at the very least made you consider, disconnecting Twitter from Buzz…

The following is an update to that article: The Social Media Marketing Mix

Looking forward to your thoughts and feelings!

The problem is, this social junk takes up valuable wall space and restricts good conversation. And like it or not, the appearance of your wall contributes to your personal brand.

But no worries, we’re going to present several ways to keep your wall clean, keeping it humming along with cool content and conversations.

1. Keep an eye on your wall and remove the junk

The most obvious approach – just check in on your wall from time to time and remove the junk posts. It’s tedious, but it’s a good habit to get into.

2. Remove the offending application

I bet you didn’t know this, but just clicking on a spammy post will add it to your list of applications. Facebook does this so that you can control the privacy settings. But even if you take step 1 above of removing the post, it may still appear to others on your wall. Remove the app by going to Application Settings.

3. Block offending applications

Go to the application page and underneath the logo, you should see a “Block Application” link. This will ensure that you no longer receive unwanted pillow fights or vampire bites. I can’t believe someone thought these apps would be entertaining.

4. Preemptively block spammy applications

Before a major holiday (hint hint, Easter’s coming up..), I do a search for the most popular holiday apps and block them. That way, I won’t receive their notifications when the holiday arrives. I did this for Valentines Day and only received one post on my wall. So either this approach is wildly successful or I’m very unpopular. Hmm.. Let’s not dwell on that one too much..

5. Be prepared to block the most serious offenders

The occasional e-gift is no big deal, but if someone posts something offensive on your wall, be prepared to take evasive maneuvers. Take the steps above and then go to the senders profile page – in the bottom left, you should see a link “Report/Block this Person”.

6. Stop your friends from posting on your wall

This one is really a last resort. The whole point of Facebook is to have friends of friends networking with each other. So I would highly encourage letting your friends post valuable info on your wall (i.e.: tag you in a post). But if none of the options above work for you, then you may have no other choice but to limit wall posting to only yourself. Friends can comment on your posts, but they (or their apps) can’t post directly to your wall. To do this, go to Privacy Settings > Profile Information. Uncheck Allow friends to post on my Wall.

7. Choose better friends

This step is my favorite. Choose friends who have the perspicacity to not install or use these types of apps. Problem solved.

Like any other business function, social media does require an ongoing investment of time and money, but the financial returns are significant. Furthermore, social media represents a new way of doing business that is rapidly becoming the norm.

Making Closer Connections

Being a celebrity can certainly help you make connections, whether people have seen you on the silver screen or in the sports arena. Having connections can also make you a celebrity, on a local, national, or global level in a group of like-minded individuals. Social media can highlight your reputation and is a means of conveying understanding, admiration, and trust. Engaging in a dialog with your group can have dramatic effects on your bottom line. An example of this is the Lupus Foundation of America and their 790% increase in donations through Facebook. It’s not necessarily the number of connections that is most important, although that can help, but rather the strength of the connections you have. And building this strength is dependent on knowing who you are and your role in the marketplace.

Propagating Memes

A meme is a concept or idea that spreads quickly from person to person. The strongest memes are informative, insightful, interesting, or funny. The reason memes spread quickly is because ideas worth sharing are shared more often, resulting in a compounding of growth. You’ll note that the effectiveness of memes does not lie in your ability to broadcast a message to the largest numbers of people. It exists in the ability of people to share the message with each other. In a way propagating memes is easy – be unique.

Innovating Beyond the Boundaries

Companies have a bad habit of thinking that innovation occurs within the confines of its own walls. Perhaps the occasional questionnaire gets sent out or the odd focus groups here or there. But listening and responding actively to feedback can be one of the most important ways to engage with your market and obtain innovative ideas.

Businesses need to ask themselves – “who are we? what do we stand for? do we have any ideas worth contributing?” By answering those questions, you’re well on your way to making it work.

Does social media work for you? Tell us about your success stories!

The now famous example of a precessional effect is the bee that seeks nectar and inadvertently pollinates flowers, producing large amounts of agricultural products for us. This kind of pollination is a side effect, in that the bee is not deliberately trying to pollinate plants, it happens “by accident”.

A precessional business model then, is one that has an objective where money is made as a side effect. Most business models are processional – you build widgets, sell widgets, and make a profit. I believe that the strongest benefit of a precessional business model is that it reduces the risk of business failure and increases the odds of profitability.

So you might be wondering.. “what does this have to do with social media optimization?” Well. a few things..

Precessional Networking

We all have things we want in business. More clients, more money, a better job, etc.. Using social media exclusively for your own goals and objectives can backfire. Like the financial advisor at a networking event who’s determined to sign you up for a “free consultation”. Or the job hunter who only talks about their job search and nothing else. It’s often best to use social media and networking for fun and let the business benefits take care of themselves as a side effect.

Precessional Products

Similarly, oftentimes the best services are those that don’t directly seek money. Think of our favorite social media tools – Facebook, Google, Twitter – not only are they free, but it’s not always obvious how they make money at all. Their primary objective is to create an enjoyable and useful experience, making money is secondary. And yet, very few companies are as well positioned as they are to make billions. When you make people happy and add value, money is a side effect. Do you take this approach when making products? Or are you like most people – fixated on creating profitable products.

Building a Precessional Model

So hopefully I’ve made the case that having a precessional business model is a good idea. And I hope we’re closer to being able to easily build a precessional model. Build a business that benefits others. Build a business for fun. Build a business that’s in alignment with who you are and your life’s purpose.  There will always be positive side effects.  How many times do we see business people chasing the latest money-making/saving scheme, only to be left worse off? How many times do we see companies nickel and dime customers, only to be perceived negatively and abandoned?

Make money a side effect and you’ll be better off. Build real relationships with real people and find out how great the side effects can be.

Tell us about your precessional business model!